


Drown Your Sorrows

by SilentUnicornSpeaks



Series: Nowhere is Safe [1]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Bilbo dies AU, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, not about the BotFA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 08:29:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4384592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentUnicornSpeaks/pseuds/SilentUnicornSpeaks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The classic trope for a Bilbo Dies AU ends his little hobbity life in the Battle of the Five Armies, but really, he could have died at any time.  First up, Laketown (might make this a series?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drown Your Sorrows

Shaking and shivering, what if Bilbo caught ill in Laketown (a place where, in a thousand other worlds, he and Thorin finally open their hearts to each other)? Thorin wraps him in blankets, holding him tight through the feast; Bilbo is sleepy and burning with fever, so Thorin carries him upstairs, puts him to bed; holds his hand and whispers “You were so brave, and I cannot thank you enough for your help”. Thanking Bilbo for his help; not his faith, not his love, because he still thinks of Bilbo as a burglar, an employee; because he can't afford to think of him as anything else, not yet with the mountain looming over them. Bilbo smiles, but vaguely, unsure in his fever-dream whether this is real or not, and Thorin blows out the candle and leaves the room, gently shutting the door behind him. His company laughs when he reappears, money changing hands with curses mixing with laughter from those who know Thorin wouldn’t spend the night with his Burglar, not yet. 

(It’s always been ‘not yet’ for Thorin though- not yet time to love a home that was not Erebor, not yet time to open his heart to anyone outside of his family. But he smiles when he returns to dinner because although the mountain stands like a sentinel in the distance, it’s also promising “almost there.”)

The morning dawns, the dwarfs are armed, and of course it’s Bofur who looks around, says “Where’s Bilbo?”. Gloin grumbles that “he can’t have been that sick”, and Dwalin gruffly says “I’ll get him”, and Thorin is only a little impatient, waiting at the docks, eyes on Erebor. 

So it comes as a shock when Dwalin comes barreling down the narrow wooden steps, forcing the Men aside, shouting for Oin to come, because the little Hobbit won’t wake up, and Thorin’s eyes for once are no longer set on Erebor. 

So imagine now, if you’ve made it this far, of a little Hobbit body lowered into the lake, buried in the manner of the Men that live there because there is no time, because Durin’s Day is almost upon them, because there is always a part of Thorin that belonged to his people, and now his head must rule him while his heart sinks beneath the waves. So imagine a Thorin, who only got a glimpse of something he never knew he wanted (craft-wed to his kingdom, he’d jokingly told Dis), a Thorin like that, entering the caverns of Erebor, and looking around at the shimmering gold, and thinking how gold can not die. Gold can't stand it's ground before a towering orc, gold can't hold your hand in the dark of an Elvish dungeon and promise miracles. Imagine a Thorin, heart already empty, and imagine how quickly he’d fall this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr as a series of asks sent to acornshields here:   
> http://acornshield.co.vu/post/124575668065/i-was-pretty-deep-on-my-dashboard-when-i-saw-your  
> Felt like it could use a quick edit since the original was done pretty quickly.


End file.
